Thunderhill Raceway with the Cyclone
April 9, 2003
"Thunderhill"

The Hope. The Glory. The Scandal.  The Redemption. The Truth!

After last night's debacle with the RV, we got off to a rocky start. We only pulled some of our rims and tires out of the go kart trailer, as we couldn't empty the entire contents into the big trailer.  We try to get the car setup for Erik to go out in the morning for the first run, except we are having problems again.

Track map of Thunderhill, which is a track favorite of many racers

Turns out that we have three rear tires on rims, but they are all mounted to be right hand drive tires.  With the Yoko slicks, you are suppose to make sure the tires roll in the same direction as the belts/rubber was spun on them, hence you have tires mounted for the left hand side and the right hand side.  Damn.  We miss the entire first session, as Erik says that driving at high speed could be dangerous on incorrectly mounted tires.  We don't want to delaminate the tire and have it shred on us and crash the car. So I head off to the local tire shop to get it changed. 

Wayne's car FLYING over the Cyclone
Photo by Blevins Enterprises

Second session with the NSX, we send Erik out, and he runs a 1:56!  But Moron Racing strikes again, and he runs out of gas before he can get cranked up to do a 1:54/1:55.  Oh well.  Erik takes the infield turn after turn 7 and barely makes it into the pit area.  This is bad....the last time I ran the NSX out of gas (September 2000), it began the worse streak of bad luck racing that I ever had.  I go out in the third session with the NSX, and in my first session ever at Thunderhill with the NSX, I run a 2:00.xx.  Car feels GREAT! 

This should be on the cover of a magazine!
Photo by Blevins Enterprises

Unfortunately, we don't have enough tires for me to keep trashing on it for more sessions, as we have to save the tires to last us through tomorrow at Thunderhill (going reverse direction)  I am pretty sure with multiple sessions I could probably get it to 1:58 without too much of a problem.  I am blowing gear shifts going into turn one, so instead of taking a chance at making a 4-1 downshift instead of a 4-3, I just putt around the turn and try again the next time around.  After my session, I realize that I shouldn't have even made the down shift, I should have just carried the speed with 4th gear right into turn 1.  I have the Datacam running when Erik is in the car, so I can now study how he is able to run times within Radical territory.

Rick White, showing the undercarriage of the car over the Cyclone
Photo by Blevins Enterprises

Mumford runs a smoking 1:51.  I mean, a 1:51 is hellaciously fast at Thunderhill.  The Radicals are running  I think 1:52, 1:53, and a 1:54(Radical #3 is apparently fixed after breaking at Pahrump).   We figure that Erik can't run a 1:53, so we will save the car and tires for tomorrow.

Last year at Thunderhill, the fastest Thunderhill time was by Ryan/John in their Mustang

This year, fastest time was by Mumford:

Supercharged, Brembos, aero mods, slicks.....what more do ya need?

Smith/Arnold go 4 for 4 in U2, running a blazing 1:58.  Wayne and Rick get the 944 Turbo running pretty good, and drop below 2 minutes, narrowly beating the Comptech Supercharged S2000.  Wayne and Rick are running 1:59's, and they take 2nd place in their class for the day.  Smith/Arnold in the BMW are doing some serious ass whupping in U2, and are running faster than I am in my car (but I am getting less seat time that usual).  After Mumford, it seems like the Smith/Arnold could be the big dogs in the local car club racing scene for "cars that can be licensed to drive on city streets".  Oops..correction....looks like the Smith/Arnold car is a Euro car, can't be licensed for the US.  Anyways, Mumford's been kicking my ass in wheel-to-wheel club races, so now it looks like I have to also watch out for Smith in the future.

Erik runs a 2:10 in session one with the S2000.  I get the car for session two, and I run 2:14's with it.  Jason is running faster than me in the S2000 also.  I got an excuse for this one, the car had no brakes and the tires were dying when I got in the car.  We have been saving our Cheating Bastard Rims and Tires for Erik, which consists of Japanese Lightweight rims on our best set of shaved tires.  Jason and I have been running the heavier stock rims, along with the same street tires that are just beat up way more than the set that Erik is running.  But our strategy is working....we have won fastest times of the day at four tracks in a row so far with this strategy.  Cars in our class are beating up on each other for second place.  There is a BMW (Boicelli/Brooks), an Audi S4(Babcock/Babcock), and a 944 S2(Lofgren/Lofgren) that are close to us, and they are taking turns at getting second fastest set of laps for the day at the various tracks.  Last year's fast time for T3 was by Hull/Arnold, which we didn't beat this year. 

Looks like we got a replacement motorhome heading our way tonight, leaving Socal at midnight. 

Most impressive time of the day is Wild Bob driving Rylan's S2000 (stockish motor, slicks, stripped out weight, aftermarket springs/shocks, and somewhere around 2300 lbs).  He is running 1:58!  Holy shit!!!!  They beat the 240Z and Flying Miata that both have major engine upgrades at a track that likes big horsepower! Let's look at those laptimes:
 

We get a break tonight, in that we don't have to travel, as we run the same course in the reverse direction tomorrow morning.

There are some epic battles going on in some of the classes.  Mumford and DJ are duking it out, each winning two track events for points towards Overall Champion of the 2003 Open Track Challenge.  The final three tracks are Thunderhill in Reverse, Willow Springs, and the Derek Daly Vegas Track (I think in reverse).  So whichever of those two drivers can get top time of the day twice, will be the overall winner.

Shad from Comptech came by to check on us and help out.  All our cars are running good.  Kennedy's S2000 blew a differential, but they swapped in Wild Bob's in about 3 hours!

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